Hmmm

My first foray into the World of Warcraft was not very exciting. I ended up creating a blue Troll Shaman named “Tonyromo” and wandered into a cave. I got bored pretty fast because I wanted to customize my dude more and all I could do was make fun of my favorite least-favorite quarterback.

I will continue to report back on any more findings.

Oh Crap.

I woke up at 3:30 this morning to the sounds of a Jackie Brown DVD looping and Ramona sort of wandering around. My nose and throat were sorta full of snot again, and I knew I was not getting back to sleep.

It’s like an hour and a half later now, and I’m watching episodes of “Spaced” that I found while cleaning out my hard drive. I’d always wanted to watch this show and apparently I got it from somewhere a while back and put it in a weird folder in my computer.

I’m also downloading World of Warcraft.

I’m not sure how you start characters or anything, but I think I’m either going to be a Gnome or a Troll, and I want to dress them up to resemble a plumber or something. I’d like to name him something like “Mikey Baumgartner” but I’m not sure that’s allowed. I don’t really know the rules.

Anyway, I have the sniffles again and I’m full of irritation, I can’t sleep, I’m watching Spaced and downloading World of Warcraft. The cat is asleep, the apartment is cold, and I’m wearing jammies.

Note: I stayed up until about 7 when Ramona woke up and wanted food, then I went slept for an hour and a half and now I have that sort of dreamy hazy feel one gets when they are really tired. World of Warcraft is still downloading.

Also, check out that Mariner nicknames post, I have to update it, as a guy who runs a Yuniesky Betancourt fansite commented that his Cuban nickname is Rikimbili, which apparently is a motorized bicycle. That is an awesome nickname. Also, I’m going to have to find some Erik Bedard footage and get some kind of good nickname for him. Any idea what Bedard stands for? Is it French? Anyway, I’m thinking either of Hotfoot or Snake initially, I’ll have to wait for Spring Training to try them out though.

Chinese Democracy Ready to go?

Say it ain’t so! According to Nick and this website, apparently Chinese Democracy is done and Axl is in negotiations. Though I’ve stated in the past that I hope the album is never released as a metaphor for life, I am of course, interested in what it has to say, and agree with Nick in that unfortunately the album will probably not be a train wreck, or the second coming of Led Zeppelin IV. Actually, I bet it sounds reasonably close to Sebastian Bach’s surprisingly okay release from last year (in which Axl sings a couple of songs).

-Matt

Your Currency

I realized this morning whilst tying my shoes and apologizing to the cat, that I can definitely obsess about things with the best of them, you can probably travel back through old blogs and find old obsessions that I acquired, researched copiously, took notes on, wrote plans about, purchased equipment for, and then abandoned. This is also the cycle for every video game I’ve played in the last few years. Anyway, there just needs to be some event that triggers the end for the obsession, either the culmination of a goal, the lack of money or having satisfied my curiosity in some way. Anyway, here is what keeps flitting through my head lately:

Home Theater Systems: I’ve been thinking about buying an HDTV for like 4 years now, and last year started a spreadsheet in order to both price, and list the components needed for said system. I went to Fry’s on Saturday afternoon so I could look at televisions with my focus unimpeded by companions. It’s a tough thing to swallow to drop a couple of grand on a TV and some other crap. But it just bears to be thought about, and talked about ad naseum. I’m planning on using tax return money on this so I can move on to something else.

Finding a new place to live: It seems that as soon as I get somewhere, I get the shakes and the shivers to leave. For some reason, the place that I am is where I suddenly don’t want to be. I’m not sure exactly what the key to finding a more permanent place to be is. I really hate moving and the feeling of wanting to move to a new place, but it’s there. I have a continuous craigslist feed on Google Reader thats searching for a Capitol Hill, one bedroom place, under 1250, and cats okay, my lease is up this month. I may pull the trigger, or I may continue to obsess. Probably the latter if I know me.

World of Warcraft: Recently, and maybe it’s that WOW ad with Mr. T or Vern Troyer, I want to play this game, and like the guys on Penny Arcade, it might be because I really want to dress up my characters in a weird way. This is why no one would let me play D&D after I created a gay centaur character. (That is not a joke, btw)

Socks: I know longer want to wear white socks and wish to change my entire sock collection to a different color. I’m thinking either gray or blue, though I’m not sure if I’m down with blue t0ejam.

Computers: I fixed one computer, and then subsequently broke it and a second computer this weekend. I spent most of yesterday grumbling under my desk and drinking coffee trying to figure out what was wrong. I’m always wanting to tweak and poke around and break them. This only leads to the perpetuation of the cycle. I once made a computer from my closet entirely out of spare parts I just sorta had lying around.

MP3’s for sure!

I started using Amazon.com’s MP3 downloading store this weekend, and by god, it just works. Downloads appear to me 256k MP3s with no DRM. I’m going to start using them to compile my monthly Music CDs (Which, come next month I’ll have been doing for 7 years). Anyway, it beats trying to strip the DRM off of shitty quality iTunes tracks, even if they don’t have the selection sometimes.

Movies Movies Movies

Oscar nominees are out, and like always I care about them even if it’s just a glorified popularity contest. It does make or break careers, but the event is always a little disappointing.

Anyway, as per just about every year for some reason, I saw 3 of the 5 best picture nominees. (No Country, Blood and Juno). I think the only films that I would have preferred be nominated for best picture are Zodiac and Ratatouille. Maybe even 3:10 to Yuma. I was surprised to see Ratatouille nominated for best screenplay as well.

The biggest goddamn shame is that Jonny Greenwood wasn’t nominated for the score of There Will Be Blood. 3:10 to Yuma and Ratattouille both deserve to be in there, and I haven’t seen Kite Runner, Atonement or Michael Clayton, so it’s really tough to say for sure. But damn if that wasn’t a score to behold.

The nominees probably only swayed me wanting to see Micheal Clayton a bit more. I’m not that interested in Atonement and though I always wanted to see Diving Bell & Butterfly, I’ll definitely wait for the rental.

Update: Reactions from my favorite bitter old critic Jeffrey Wells. I agree that Once should have gotten the nod over Juno for being unique and beautiful, and that No Country will probably win (even though I prefer There Will Be Blood)

Note to Scrapper: Roger Deakins was nominated twice in the Cinematography category

Update Update: Jonny Greenwood’s score ruled ineligible because of too much pre-existing music. Fuck the academy!

More Baseball

Angry Beltre says: Pitchers and Catchers report on Feb. 13th, while the first ST game is Feb. 26th.

Overall, I am excited about the new season and am actually looking into getting limited cable again in order to be able to enjoy baseball games at my leisure. It’s actually about the same price as buying MLB.tv, I won’t have to worry about this until April though.

Overall, unless they somehow land Bedard without giving up Jones, or Morrow turns into a magic bean, we’re probably looking at an 85-88 win season I’m guessing.  Oh baseball! Only a few weeks away.

Mariner’s Nicknames

As the new season rolls upon us, and Troy was mentioning it to me, I thought I’d post a guide to nicknames we’ve made up (or steal from Lookout Landing) for our favorite Mariners. This is quick, so if I forget one, I am sorry if its poorly written or I forget someone.

Adrian Beltre - “Christmas Hams” or Captain Awesome. I think both of these are very descriptive.

Ichiro - I just always call him Ichiro, because he’s Ichiro. No real need here.

JJ Putz - Again, just JJ, he kicks ass, so no real need. I’ve always liked Big Red or Putzenjammer. Edit: From Scrapper: Yes, I do call him Foxpatch, crap, that’s pretty much my favorite nickname for him too.

Brandon Morrow - We call him Captain Morrow, short for Captain Morrow, Avast of the high seas. It’s like every outing he has is a crazy pirate adventure that he has no control over. For instance, he will walk the bases loaded and strike out the next 3 guys on 3-2 counts. Or give up a grand slam. Or whatever.

Ryan Rowland-Smith - “New Money”. I think Faye and Scrapper gave him this due to his somewhat aristocratic name and face, and he’s Australian.

George Sherrill - “The Governor”, I have no idea where this came from. It might have been “The General” too,  Edit: According to Scrapper, “He marshalls his balls furiously.” We might just want to call him “Marshall 52″, but actually I think Silva stole his number, we should probably just fucking call Silva “Repo Man”.

Willie Bloomquiest - “Willie Ballgame”, Willie Boom-Boom, Willie Dynamite, as long as you put Willie in there, I think its okay.

Eric O’Flaherty - “Potatoes”. He is obviously of Irish decent, and the Irish are a bunch of potato eating drunks. Also they play “For Boston” as his entrance music. Pretty good for a left-handed middle reliever to have his own music.

Adam Jones - “Waxman Slam”. I like shouting “You do it Waxman!”. Not sure where this came from, I think it’s his itty-bitty moustache.

Yuniesky Betancourt - “The Yuni-Bomber” or simply “Bettay!”. He’s got a great name, so you can pretty much fire at will.

Horatio Ramirez - Classically “HoRam”, but also Ho or various crude obscenities.

Miguel Batista - Classically at LL he’s known as “Beluga Tits” as its an anagram of his name, but also “Reverend” could work, as I’ll be asking him to perform at my wedding or one of my choosing in lieu of me getting married.

Felix Hernandez - “King Felix” of course, is the preferred nickname, or just Felix is fine. “Felix the Cat” is not fine.

Ryan Feierabend - “Wiggles”, no reason for this at all, but he does have a sick pick-off move, but also kind of sucks some of the time, so it’s hard to say if he makes it back to the bigs unless some gets hurt.

These four eyes o’mine

I would add more bespectacled photos of myself if Shozu and Flickr weren’t giving each other the fits, mostly so I can understand what these things are doing to my face. As far as I know, most of the folks I’m friends with have had these things for years and years, and have terribly unpleasant opthomological childhood memories. I know I remember my dear sister freaking out when she had to go. Anyway, now that I realize that my life is a damn sight better (rimshot!) with glasses on I’m still trying to figure out how you to do simple things like sneeze or blow the hair out of my face without fogging up or otherwise destroying these things.

I walked into work and felt like people were judging me, and I have no idea why. I guess this is sad, reflexive payback for when I made fun of my sister when I was a kid.

Also, I ended up having to watch Entourage last night as for some reason they couldn’t send me the 4th disc of The Wire. I liked the first few episodes more or less, I don’t think I could ever be a fan, but it’s entertaining fluff.

I’ve been listening to Sia’s new album lately, while I’m talking about stuff. It’s sort of adult contemporary I guess, but it’s been good music to sit back and chill to. I also like the Magnetic Fields new one as well.

Politics are getting even better. I look at the Republican race and just secretly wish that Mitt Romney wins the nomination, he’s such a damn phony. On the democrat side, I am always secretly rooting for Obama, even if I think HC would make a really good president. Troy really likes Kucinich, and while I respect ol’ Dennie for his honesty and smokin’ hot wife, I think it’s Mr. Morris’ Evergreen heritage talking when he says he’d make a good president.

Any other subjects to talk about? Spring Training is coming up soon here, I’m pretty sure Pitchers and Catchers report in the next couple of weeks. I sure hope they don’t trade Adam Jones for Bedard, I think the most lucid argument  I’ve heard is basically this: Trading for Bedard would be awesome, but basically trading Jones opens up such a big hole in the outfield that we can’t replace (sorry Wlad), that it really becomes an even swap, and you’re still giving up Sherrill and another top prospect. I’d trade 4 other top guys who are not Jones for him (Morrow, Clement, Tillman and Sherrill maybe?) but the O’s want AJ, and I don’t blame them. Stupid baseball.

That’s all I have for today.

-Matt

The Glasses

The Glasses

Originally uploaded by Tzpkcht Kzmsrskstlrz

So here they are, the glasses I apparently really needed because when I take them off it feels like someone just rack focused the background out.